Seller-driven method for a bid set system

ABSTRACT

A method for automatically bidding on multiple on-line auction items up for bid where the number of items the bidder wishes to buy is less than the number of items up for bid is disclosed. A method of a seller or auction site giving a bidder the ability to add a listing to a set of listings that can be processed as above is also disclosed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit to U.S. provisional applications60/846,492 filed on Sep. 21, 2006, for “System to bid to win one or moreof multiple listings” by Alejandro Backer, et al. and 60/930,880 filedon May 18, 2007, for “Multi-item Bidder Enhancement” by AlejandroBacker, et al., the disclosure of all of which is incorporated herein byreference.

FIELD

The present disclosure is generally directed to facilitating the use ofon-line auctions, specifically, to a seller-driven method for a bid setsystem. More in particular, this disclosure is directed to an improvedmethod of bidding on multiple items at the same time where the desiredset of items is less than the number of items available to bid on.

BACKGROUND

Auctions are a means of selling items by placing items up for bid,collecting bid prices from a number of buyers, and then selling the itemto the highest bidder. It is believed that auctions have been used asleast as early as 500 B.C. when women were auctioned off as wives toBabylonian men.

In 1995, the auction process reached the Internet when a Japanesecompany auctioned off used cars over the Internet. Later that year eBaystarted an on-line auction website that allowed users to not only bid onitems, but also place items up for bid. Today eBay has over 181 millionregistered users worldwide and in 2005 handled a gross merchandisevolume of $44.3 billion. Since 1995, many other on-line auction siteshave opened allowing anyone with Internet access to participate aseither a buyer or a seller. Online sites have auctioned items rangingfrom a single kidney bean to a Gulf Stream jet airplane.

Most auction sites allow the bidder to search for items by keyword orbrowse by category. Once the items matching the bidder's criteria arefound, they are listed along with information such as a description ofthe item, the item's selling price, the time left on the item, theitem's current price, the top bidder of the item, and a picture of theitem. The bidder can then decide if they wish to place bids on one ormore of the items listed.

However, each item search invariably yields multiple sellers offeringcomparable items. Buyers often want “any one of these”, so several ofthe listings would be suitable, but the auction system allows the buyerto bid on only one seller's auction at a time (unless, of course, thebuyer is trying to buy multiple items).

This means buyers that would otherwise be quite satisfied with oneseller's listing end up bidding on another seller's listing. What isworse, there is very little chance the buyer will return to the firstseller, or possibly any seller, if the buyer loses the auction for theother listing.

Since there is only one winner per auction, this means scores of buyerswho could be happy with an equivalent item will never bid on it.

SUMMARY

The current disclosure regards a method and system that allows people(users) to create “bid sets”: a listing of comparable online auctionitems up for bid, where the number of available items typically exceedsthe number of items the user wants to buy.

The following is an example of how this method could be implemented. Itshould be kept in mind that the process is not necessarily a linear oneand the following steps might occur in a different order than presentedhere or occur more than once per process cycle. The user selects one ormore listings from an online auction website, such as eBay, and placestheir identifying information (“ID”) into a bid set—a collection oflisting IDs in a database. The bid set the listings are placed in can bean existing bid set, or a new bid set can be created for the listings.The bid set database typically contains a set of listings IDs to be bidon, the maximum price the user will pay for each listing (or one pricefor all listings in the bid set), and the number of listings the userwishes to win bids on. The bids in the bid set can be prioritized bycriteria supplied either by the user or by the system (i.e. defaultcriteria). The system then uses the listing ID of the highest prioritylisting to determine the network location of the listing. The systemthen bids on the highest priority listing until the user wins the item,the listing's price exceeds the maximum price the user will pay for thatitem, or the item is removed from the auction.

-   -   If the user wins the item and the user has won his desired        number of items, then the system stops bidding on items in that        bid set.    -   If the user wins the item and the user has not won his desired        number of items, then the system starts the bidding process with        the next highest priority item.    -   If the price of the item exceeds the maximum price set by the        user, then the system stops bidding on that item and starts the        bidding process with the next highest priority item.    -   If the item is removed from the auction for some reason, then        the system starts the bidding process with the next highest        priority item.

Once the user has won the desired number of items from the bid set, orif the bid set has no more items to bid on, the process ends.

In some embodiments of the disclosure, the bidding is doneprogrammatically by software in computer-readable media and/or hardware.

In some embodiments, monitoring of auctions is carried out by aprogrammatic interface monitoring the auction through an API(Application Programming Interface).

In some embodiments, auction monitoring is carried out by an automatedsystem, such as a program that periodically checks the contents ofauction site webpages for auction results.

In other embodiments, auction monitoring is carried out by an emailnotification system between the auction website and the bidding system.

In some embodiments, the multi-item bidding system is integrated intothe auction website.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, bidders submit different bids fordifferent items in a bid set.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the bidding system submits each bida short time before the end of the corresponding auction. This allowsbidders maximum time to continue to add listings to their bid set beforea decision is made as to the listings' priorities and thus the order inwhich they will be bid on.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the method is performed by a serverconnected to the Internet. In one embodiment of the disclosure, themethod is performed by client software connected to the Internet.

In some embodiments, the user interface allows the user to drag and dropitems from one or multiple auction and/or e-commerce websites into theirbid set of objects to be bid on.

It is preferable that the bidding be done programmatically by softwarein computer-readable media and/or hardware.

In some embodiments, every time a bidder bids or adds an item to his/herbid set, an automated system presents similar or related items forinclusion in the bid set based on the characteristics of the listing,such as product description, product manufacturer, size, color, andmodel number. In some embodiments, listings from the same seller as thelisting selected are presented preferentially (e.g. above others, orwith a more salient typography or display characteristics).

In some embodiments, the bid set system delivers targeted advertisementsto prospective buyers that are related to the listings they haveindicated an interest in. For example, advertisers could pay forplacement of their advertisements. Further, the advertisers could payfor placement of ads when particular keywords are shown. Advertiserscould pay per impression. Optionally, the advertisers could choose topay per click, and the system could optimize the timing of when to showthe advertisements in order to maximize the click through rate for thoseads. Alternatively, the advertisers could pay per bid, and the systemwill optimize when to show the advertisements in order to maximize thenumber of bids. Alternatively, advertisers could pay per purchase, payper dollar of purchase amount, or pay different amounts for each of morethan one of the above, i.e. impressions, clicks, bids, purchases orpurchase value. For any of the above embodiments, the payment could behandled through a bidding system itself, i.e. the advertisers could bidfor the placements.

In some embodiments, an automated system searches one or more auctionwebsites to find items related to those the prospective buyer/user hasexpressed an interest in by comparing the characteristics of thelistings; for example: if the user is interested in bidding on a red,short-sleeve shirt, the system find other listings for other red,short-sleeve shirts. In one embodiment, the results of this search areprovided to the user as a list. In some embodiments, the related itemsare automatically searched for if and when the user loses the auctionsfor all the listings he or she had selected. In some embodiments, thelist of related items are provided to the user for approval before thesystem bids for them. In some embodiments, such request for approval isvia email; in others via a web interface; in others through a pop-up inthe user's computer; in others through text messages to a phone; inothers through voice messages; in others through RSS messaging. Inanother embodiment, the system automatically adds the related items to abid set and processes the bid set without confirmation from the user.

In some embodiments, listings are identified with a code unique to eachdifferent type of item (e.g. a stock keeping unit, or “SKU”), and bidsfor a listing can be interpreted as a bid for any item identified withthe same code in comparable condition (e.g. new).

In one embodiment, either the seller or auction provider can place awebpage form element—such as a graphical user interface (GUI) button,text link, GUI checkbox, or GUI option button—with the listing up forbid. The bidder then only needs to activate the element to add thatlisting to a bid set. The code for the element is provided by the bidset system website. In embodiments where the seller is responsible forplacing the element, the seller may add the code along with thedescription when he enters the item into the auction system. Inembodiments where the auction provider (e.g. eBay) places the element,the element can be included by default in all listings. The code couldbe in HTML, JavaScript, Flash, AJAX or any similar web-friendlylanguage. The listing can be identified implicitly based on the URLinformation included in referrer information in the HTTP request to thebid set system, i.e. identification is made by identifying the webpagefrom which the action was called and selecting the identifyinginformation either from the URL string or from the web page itself.Alternatively, the listing identification can be included in the elementcode and be returned to the bid set system as a variable in the call. Anexample of what an HTML version of this code could look like for a GUIbutton

<p><a href=http://www.1ofthese.com/?Page=SellerNCRU.aspx&Item=YourItemNumber target=“_blank”><img src=“http://www.-1ofthese.com/1ofthese/Web/Style/images/add_bidset.gif”border=“0”/></a></p>where “www.1ofthese.com” is the web server for the bid set system and“add_bidset.gif” is the image file of the GUI button. In embodimentswhere the present invention is integrated with the auction website, thelisting can be identified without the need to use URL or referrer, usinga parameter of the function called by the element.

If the buyer who activates the element is not currently logged into thebid set system, then the system prompts the buyer either to log in, ifthey have an account, or to establish an account, if they do not alreadyhave one. Once logged in, the bid set system processes the bid set asusual. In some embodiments, the present invention is integrated with theauction website, and there is no need to log into the bid set systemseparately from the auction website.

If the buyer has already logged onto the bid set system, the activationmay be sufficient to place an item in the user's bid set. In this way,the user can select several listings to be placed on the bid set withouthaving to revisit the bid set website.

In another embodiment, bidders may add an item to a bid set byperforming an action at a webpage listing multiple items available forsale. For example: checking a check box adjacent to a picture ordescription of the corresponding item or listing, and then clicking abutton elsewhere on the page. Alternatively, the selection may be madeby clicking a button next to a listing in a list of listings.

Another embodiment of the disclosure includes an automated system thattakes into account the utility functions or preferences of severalbidders and sellers in an auction and matches the bidders to the sellersin a way such that no change can be made to the matches without reducingsomeone's utility. For example, each buyer could either state an orderof preference of listings or how much he or she is willing to pay foreach listing and each seller could explicitly or implicitly state anorder of preference of buyers (usually the more a bidder offers, thehigher a seller's preference for him or her). One embodiment of thisfollows: the buyer who bids the most (and is thus most desirable tosellers) is assigned his or her top choice, and that listing is removedfrom available choices. The buyer who bids second most is assigned hisor her top choice from among the available choices. The process thenrepeats until all listings are filled.

Another embodiment of the disclosure includes a method of automaticallyfinding auction items that are about to sell at price below a calculated“fair” price and bids for them. If the item is won, an automated systemautomatically re-sells the item at a higher price in a subsequentauction. A “fair” price might be an average price or some pre-determinedfunction of the distribution of historical prices. In one embodiment ofthis, the delivery address of the re-seller user (the original buyer andsubsequent seller) is not provided to the original seller until thedelivery address of the subsequent buyer has been provided to there-seller.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method forbidding on on-line auction listings is provided, comprising thefollowing steps: (a) selecting a plurality of listings to bid on from anon-line auction, wherein each listing has an identification; (b)determining a number of listings required to be won; (c) storing theidentification of each of the plurality of listings in a bid setdatabase, wherein each listing has a corresponding record containing theidentification; (d) selecting the first record from the bid set databaseafter at least one listing has been stored; and (e) bidding on thelisting that corresponds to the selected record after the first recordis selected; the method further comprising: if the bidding results insuccess: decrementing the number of listings required to be won; if,after the decrementing, the number is zero, ending the process; and if,after the decrementing, the number is greater than zero, selecting thenext record in the bid set database and, if the record exists, repeatingstep (e); and if the bidding results in failure: selecting the nextrecord in the bid set database and, if the record exists, repeating step(e); wherein steps (c), (d), and (e) are performed by a computer.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, a method foradding an on-line auction listing to a bid set is disclosed, comprising:providing a webpage form element corresponding to an on-line auctionlisting; identifying the on-line auction listing by information providedby the webpage form element; storing the on-line auction listing into abid set database based on the information provided by the user interfaceelement, wherein the bid set database contains zero or more on-lineauction listing records; and running computer software that performs atask of bidding on at least one on-line auction listing if the bid setdatabase has at least one on-line auction listing record.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, a method foradding an on-line auction listing to a bid set is disclosed, comprising:providing a user interface element corresponding to an on-line auctionlisting on an on-line auction website; identifying the on-line auctionlisting by information provided by the user interface element; storingthe on-line auction listing into a bid set database based on theinformation provided by the user interface element, wherein the bid setdatabase contains zero or more on-line auction listing records; biddingon at least one on-line auction listing if the bid set database has atleast one on-line auction listing record.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a method forconducting an on-line auction is disclosed, comprising: collecting therequirements from each bidder from a plurality of bidders, including aseller priority value of each seller from a plurality of sellers saideach bidder wishes to be matched to, wherein for each bidder each sellerhas a different seller priority value and the highest seller priorityvalue indicates the seller said buyer most wants to buy from; collectingthe bid values from each bidder from a plurality of bidders, whereinthere is a highest bid value and a lowest bid value; and matchingone-to-one said plurality of bidders to said plurality of sellers, thematching comprised of the steps: (a) prioritizing the bidders by bidvalue, such that the highest bid value corresponds to a highestpriority; then (b) matching a bidder from said plurality of bidders whohas a priority value equal to or greater than each other bidder and whohas not yet been matched to any seller from said plurality of sellers toa seller from said plurality of sellers who has a seller priority valuefor said bidder greater than any other seller who has not yet beenmatched to any bidder from said plurality of bidders and who has not yetbeen matched to any bidder; and then (c) repeating step (b) until theplurality of bidders are matched to sellers or the plurality of sellersare matched to bidders.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a method forenhancing on-line auction purchases is disclosed, comprising:determining a fair price for an auction listing for a set of goods;monitoring the auction listing bid price of the auction listing; biddingon the auction listing if the auction listing bid price is below thefair price; and if the bidding is successful, placing the set of goodsin a new auction listing wherein the new auction listing bid price ishigher than the auction listing bid price; wherein the above steps areperformed by a computer.

According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, an internecomputer server system is disclosed, comprising: a web server forcollecting hypertext transfer protocol messages; a bid set systemconnected to the web server, the bid set system comprising: a databasefor storing auction listings and a bidding engine for bidding on auctionlistings; wherein the bid set system is adapted to determine buyeridentification and auction listing identification based on the contentof the hypertext transfer protocol messages.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the bid set system.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an embodiment of the seller-driven enhancementto the bid set system.

FIG. 3 is an example of the seller-driven enhancement implemented on anauction webpage.

FIG. 4 is an embodiment of the bid set server system and itsrelationship to an on-line auction website.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 gives a flowchart for an embodiment of the bid set method. First,a buyer (user) selects a bid listing they want to bid on 102 from anonline auction 106. The user also tells the bid set system what themaximum price the user is willing to bid for that listing and how manylistings the user needs to win. Then, the user instructs the online bidset system 104, via webpage interface, to add this listing to either anew or existing bid set 108. The system sorts the listings in the bidset according to the priorities assigned to them, either by the systemor the user 110. The system then accesses the online auction and bids onthe highest priority bid 112. The system checks to see if the bid wonthe auction 114.

If the bid did not win the auction (i.e. someone else placed a higherbid), then the system increases the bid by a preset amount 116. If thisnew bid price is not over a user selected maximum bid price 118, thenthe system submits a new bid at the new price 112.

If this new bid price is over a user selected maximum bid price 118 orif the listing is no longer available to be bid on (e.g. someone elsewon the auction), then the system removes the highest priority listingfrom the bid set 122 and checks to see if there are any remaininglistings in the bid set 124. If there are none, then the system ends andsends the user a result 126. If there are listings remaining in the set,then the new highest priority listing is bid upon 112. Alternatively,the system could make only one bid attempt per listing at the maximumbid price rather than stepping up the price repeatedly.

If the bid did win the auction, then the system checks to see if theuser has won enough listings to satisfy the user's requirements (set bythe user) 120. If the user requires more listings to be bid upon 120,then the highest priority listing (i.e. the one just won) is removed 122and more listings are bid upon 112 until the bid set is empty 124, 126or the user has won enough listings to fill his requirements 120, 128.If the user does not require more listings to be bid upon 120, then thesystem finishes 128 and sends the user a report.

FIG. 2 shows how a buyer 202 and a seller 204 can take advantage of theseller-driven embodiment of the bid set system. First, a seller 204 goesto the bid set system 106 website and downloads the code for a graphicaluser interface (GUI) button to be placed with the seller's listing. Theseller 204 then places 212 a listing for bid on an on-line auction 104website and includes the button code with the listing. A buyer 202browses 216 the on-line auction 104 website and finds 216 the listingwith the GUI button. The buyer 202 then presses 216 or “clicks on” theGUI button. The GUI button code then sends 218 a message via theinternet to the bid set system 106 web-server. The message containsidentifying data on the buyer 202 and the listing. The bid set system106 then begins bidding on listings in the bid set for the buyer 202,using a method like the one depicted in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the seller-driven enhancement,specifically an embodiment of the in-listing button. In this embodiment,the seller has a listing 304 on an on-line auction webpage 302. Thelisting 304 contains seller-provided information and, optionally, aphoto 306 of the item up for bid. In the description section 308 of thelisting 304, the seller places the code provided by the bid set system.This code appears on the webpage 302 as a GUI button 310 that, whenpressed, will place the item in a bid set for the buyer browsing thepage. This is in contrast to the button provided by the auction system312 that bids on the listing for the buyer without first placing it in abid set. Alternatively, the code for the GUI button 310 could beintegrated on the webpage 302 by the auction system so that the sellerdoes not need to input the code.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a computer server system 400 implementingan embodiment of the seller-driven enhancement. The buyer goes to thewebsite of an on-line auction 402. There, the buyer finds a listing 404the buyer wishes to bid on. With the listing 404, there is a GUI button406 labeled in a way to let the buyer know that clicking on it will addthe listing 404 to the bid set system 414. The buyer clicks on thebutton 406, sending an HTTP message 408 to the computer server system's400 web server 410. The web server 410 then parses out the identifyingdata from the HTTP message 408 and sends that data to the bid set system414. The bid set system 414 is preferably a computer programmed tohandle the task of managing the communications with the database 416 andthe on-line auction 402, as well as processing any bidding algorithmsand determining the status of the bid set (i.e. if enough listings havebeen won or not). The identifying data is stored in a bid set database416. The bid set bidding engine 418 then takes the identifying data fromthe database 416 and uses it to connect to communicate 420 with theon-line auction website 402 to bid on the listing if needed.

The disclosure has been described in general terms according to thepreferred embodiments. However, people having ordinary skill in the artwill understand that changes may be made to what is disclosed.Therefore, the scope of the invention is to be limited only by thefollowing claims and their equivalents.

1. A method for bidding on on-line auction listings, comprising thefollowing steps: (a) selecting a plurality of listings to bid on from anon-line auction, wherein each listing has an identification; (b)determining a number of listings required to be won; (c) storing theidentification of each of the plurality of listings in a bid setdatabase, wherein each listing has a corresponding record containing theidentification; (d) selecting the first record from the bid set databaseafter at least one listing has been stored; and (e) bidding on thelisting that corresponds to the selected record after the first recordis selected; the method further comprising: if the bidding results insuccess: decrementing the number of listings required to be won; if,after the decrementing, the number is zero, ending the process; and if,after the decrementing, the number is greater than zero, selecting thenext record in the bid set database and, if the record exists, repeatingstep (e); and if the bidding results in failure: selecting the nextrecord in the bid set database and, if the record exists, repeating step(e); wherein steps (c), (d), and (e) are performed by a computer.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring the on-line auction byusing a web crawling program.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein steps(c), (d), and (e) are performed by the on-line auction.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: selecting a price to bid on each listing.5. The method of claim 4, wherein the price to bid on each listing isthe same for all listings.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein: eachlisting further comprises an expiration time; and the step of bidding onthe listing further comprises: waiting until a pre-determined timebefore the expiration of time before bidding on each listing.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting a plurality of listingsis performed by drag and drop technology.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the listings have characteristics and further comprising thestep of delivering advertisements based on the characteristics.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: searching for additional listingshaving similar characteristics to the listings, wherein the searching isdone by an automated search program.
 10. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising notifying results of the searching via text messaging. 11.The method of claim 9, wherein the characteristics is comprised of acode unique to each different type of item associated with the listing.12. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting of the first recordcomprises: determining a criterion for sorting the bid set database;sorting the bid set database based on the criterion; and selecting thefirst record from the bid set database after the sorting. 13-24.(canceled)